On our second day in India we woke up early to start our journey from Delhi to Agra. It's about a 5 hour bus ride and our goal was to make it by sunset so we could photograph the Taj Mahal. Yes, that's right...the Taj Mahal! The high point of our whole trip! Much more on "the Taj" later :)
The thing about being in India, at least for me, is that no matter where you look, there is always something new and interesting to see. As the bus drove down the road, I was totally overwhelmed by everything I was seeing. I can't even tell you how many times I was tempted to yell "stop the bus!!" so that I could get out and take pictures of what we were passing. From cows eating out of dumpsters, women in brightly colored saris carrying large loads on their heads, people getting haircuts on the side of the road, children bathing by the wells, camels pulling carts down the roads to herds of sheep crossing the roads, I thought we'd never be able to capture all of the moments. What I didn't know is that what was so shocking the first few days would eventually become common place by the end of the trip giving us a chance to photograph everything! So back to the drive from Delhi to Agra...as we passed all of these sites without stopping, some of the women in the group (including me) started itching to get out and be in the middle of it all, even just for a minute. Our guide, Vikram (he was SO awesome...a 22 year old guy that dealt with the demands of 14 women for an entire week) kindly asked the bus to stop and we finally got our chance to get out!
With large, open windows, the locals could spot us from a mile away. I guess all of the blondies on the bus were dead giveaways! This is the type of crowd that was often waiting for us to step off the bus.
Photo credit: Chris P!
The very first thing that struck me about India was the trash that covered the streets everywhere we went. Amanda described it best as a place of extreme contrasts...beautiful, pristine monuments surrounded by trash right outside the gates.
At first I was a little hesitant to take pictures of people because there was just no subtle way to do it...but then I noticed this guy following me everywhere I went and HE was taking pictures of ME so I thought "fine, I can do it too!"
All eyes were on us the entire time we were walking through the town. By the way, this was about an hour outside of Delhi and we were told tourists never stop here.
Those colorful bags are filled with holi powders. I am going to give a much better explanation of Holi in the day 3 blog, but for now, just know it involves brightly colored powders that are rubbed/thrown all over each other once a year. Everywhere we went, people's faces were covered in holi powder.
This guy was thrilled to see us and wished us each a "Happy Holi" as he rubbed a bright streak of powder on each of our foreheads (which I quickly rubbed off as soon as I got back on the bus...)
Me and Cara (thanks for taking this picture, Chris!)
Amanda was great about taking time to talk to the locals and these kids just loved her!
Back on the bus. We loved our little stop!
Another road side stop. This is a statue of the Hindu god, Shiva. (Someone correct me I'm wrong!) Photo credit goes to Chris again...she is good!
Another shot from inside the bus. This little boy waited on the side of the road and as the bus stopped, he ran up with his monkey, held it up on a stick for us to see and wanted us to pay him for doing it. As much as you want to pay every kid that needs money, you just can't because they are literally all over the place. What made me more sad was the kids that would run into the street and do cartwheels and tricks with oncoming traffic...just for a few cents. While these kids should be in school, most of them are kept out by their parents because they make money for the family by perfoming and begging. It's really best not to support it...even though you want to :(
The next few are all bus shots. These guys were in the middle of a holi celebration (you can see the powders and water all over their clothes and faces) and they were totally drunk...hence the dancing on the side of the road. Made for a good picture anyway!
More onlookers watching us inside the bus!
Part of the Holi celebration, these piles were burned all over India. I'm not going to tell you what the pile is made of...I'll leave that up to your imagination. (Photo credit to Amanda on this one!)
We finally made it to Agra! This is one of the monuments we stopped at (I forget what it's called...oops!)
Our first look at camels in India! These ones were used for attracting tourists (obviously, it works, haha), but we eventually saw many others that were used for everyday chores.
So finally, we made our way over to the Taj Mahal. It was the one thing that I was most looking forward to for the entire trip...I mean, its one of the seven wonders of the world after all! I couldn't wait to see it in all it's glory! I was just itching to get that straight on view...just like you see in the books...
...and this is the view we got. The side view! I was very disappointed! OK, yes, it's definitely the Taj Mahal, but if I didn't tell you that, you probably wouldn't even know just by looking at this picture! So here's the deal...our trip included 3 trips to the Taj Mahal...one at sunset, one at sunrise and another trip back for the full tour. Our guides, however, in trying to make an extra buck, tried to convince us that the best place to shoot the sunrise was from the side in an effort to make money off of us by only bringing us to the Taj twice. At that point, it was too late to do anything else so we sucked it up, got over our frustrations and photographed the side...
...and as it turns out, the side shot isn't so bad after all :)
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